[Samba] PDC migration from suse 8.2 - samba 2.2.7 ldap - to latest versions on ubuntu 8.04

[Giorgio]

Hello,
Hopefully I'm in the right place asking for help :-)

I need to move from an old physical Suse 8.2 - samba 2.2.7 + ldap - to
latest samba versions, I would like to use an ubuntu 8.04 virtual machine.

The domain is in production on the physical server, to be dismissed after
migration. It is also the file server!!! so /DATA/ has all shared and
permission driven file access..

I was following https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/serverguide/C/samba-dc.html but
I realize I am in a different scenario...

Production so no errors are admitted :-(, migration to new os and versions..
all at once?

I have a dump of the physical server (dd sda mbr and single partitions :)
plus an rsync with all permissions daily backup, just to be safe ;)


What would you guru's suggest as a strategy?

Can I create a new server and add it as secondary domain controller and then
once the replica is up? I'd feel quite comfortable with this method.

BTW I need a new version of samba as they have already bought Windows 7
boxes (without asking if they were supported arrgh).

Thanks to all of you who read or answered :-)

Gio